enamelled gold, modelled as a fauteuil en gondole with lyre and arrow supports after a design by the Imperial architect Leo von Klenze, the chair demonstrates Fabergé’s mastery of enamelling, the deep red enamel which simulates mahogany is fired over a ground engraved with the texture of wood grain, the seat is enamelled translucent green imitating moiré silk and is embroidered with a triumphal flaming urn in minutely impressed gold leaf.
Chief Workmaster: Michael Evamplevitch Perchin,
St. Petersburg, 1896-1903,
inventory number: 1920.
Miniature enamelled furniture studies are amongst Fabergé‘s rarest and most imaginative creations. The chair is made from gold of seventy- two zolotniks; the highest standard used by Fabergé.
Provenance
The collection of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna.
Recorded as item 466 in the inventory of the Grand Duchess’ possessions compiled in 1917.
The Ratibor Family, Princes of Ratibor and Corvey.
The chair was included in an exhibition of the Imperial Family’s Fabergé collection held in the Von Dervis Mansion on the English Embankment in St. Petersburg in March, 1902. The chair is clearly visible in an archival photograph of the exhibition, which is now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
